Lord of the Rings
by SonicScrewdriver
Summary: Wherever he goes, the Doctor wears a ring on his wedding finger. No one knows why, no one dares to ask. Find the true meaning of the ring through the eyes of Martha, Jack, the Master and the Doctor himself. Also now, find out all about Rose's ring. 10Rose
1. The Doctor's Ring

_**Lord of the Rings.**_

_**Cute, fluffy little one-shot I thought up during Modern Studies. Short, and typically AU.**_

_**Wherever he goes, the Doctor wears a ring on his wedding finger. No-one knows why, no-one dares to ask. Find the true meaning of the ring through the eyes of Martha, Jack, the Master and the Doctor himself.**_

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_Martha Jones._

It was a clinking sound that first attracted me to it. When he was walking up the railing, calm despite almost being shot by an arrow after meeting both Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I. He held on to the metal, the band around his finger clinking once again. It was about the only normal thing in this so-called ship, that ring. The clinking is almost comforting, the exact same sounds as my mother's ring sounds when she's drinking a cup of tea, the ring hitting against the chipped china as she raises it to her lips. I open my mouth, to ask him why he's wearing it, when he bounces into action as though he knows what I'm about the say, and doesn't want to answer.

"Where to, then? I could take you to … oh, the first anti-gravity Olympics? Atlantis? Or, New Earth! That's a place and a half! Can nuns, you see," he said, going on and on although I had stopped listening.

I smiled. "New Earth it is, then!" and that was his cue to bounce off around the console, pushing a button here and there …

But It wasn't until we were back on Earth, fixing ourselves up for Lazarus' big do that I realized he was still wearing the ring. It flashed in the moonlight, and when the light hit it right it was beautiful. I summoned up the courage, and asked him straight.

"Why are you wearing a wedding ring?"

He frowned, and then raised one eyebrow at me. "Why? Jealous?" he said, skipping away from me with that boyish grin plastered on his face. I smiled back, knowing he was right, but I never let him see it. I guess I was never to know what that ring represented, even though he wore it until my final days in the TARDIS.

_Jack Harkness_.

It was something that the "old" – though I never really think of him as old – Doctor would have never done. But, oh no, this one did. It hit me in the shoulder blade as he gave me a hug at the end of the universe. It glinted in the candlelight as she waved at Martha, stunned as she produced a "hand-in-a-jar" or, as I prefer to call it, my Doctor Detector from my bag. This thing that I'm talking about was the Doc's ring. It was always on his wedding finger, wherever he went, despite the fact that there was only himself, me and Martha on the TARDIS. Sometimes when he was worried, or seeking an answer I caught him twirling it, around and around on his slim finger but never taking it off. It stayed firmly on the fourth finger of his left hand, through wind, snow and rain. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was taking comfort from it, as though it was a remembrance of something. Something long gone. I could never ask him about it, though. Hushed conversations, with Martha in the kitchen - mainly when the Doctor was fixing something in the TARDIS - told me that she'd noticed it too, only she'd had the courage ton ask him about it, only for her question to be rebuffed. It seemed like an almost taboo subject, but Jack Harkness isn't an out-of-bounds sort of guy. So, I asked him.

"What's with the ring, Doc?" I tried straight to the point, biting the bullet as we piloted the TARDIS. I was secretly hoping he was too busy concentrating on driving, and that the answer would slip out without it meaning to.

"Why, Jack? Jealous?" he said, looking up at me. I rolled my eyes, knowing that he'd given the same answer to Martha. "Buy me a drink, first," I heard as I walked further into the TARDIS, ready to share this new progress (or lack of) with Martha.

_The Master _

It was like my very own. Platinum, I suspected, a simple band that wound around the slender fourth finger giving off an aura of possession and marriage. When myself and Lucy had been married, we had gone together to pick out rings. I favoured a simple style, and it seemed that this man did too. It seemed odd – there were only three of them, a proper trio of sorts, only one seemed left out. The girl. Martha Jones, I learnt. Was he married to her? There was no way. I could see the way he looked at her, like he was only glossing over her, not seeing the proper picture. He wasn't married to the man, either – that man, Jack, was too much of a Ladies Man, I learnt after visiting him several times on the Valiant. Why did he wear it, then? I was confused, but a year of studying the two men and learning more about the girl shed some light on the whole drama.

There was someone else, someone who both the Doctor and Jack personally knew and Martha had heard of. A legend, of sorts. Another girl. I pierced the Doctor's mind in a way on Time Lords could a saw a blonde girl, human, before being thrown out. I smirked. So, the Doctor had fallen to the charms of a human girl, as well?

Like Doctor, Like Master.

_The Doctor_

It was her idea. Rose's. Ecstatic after seeing the pair of platinum rings while we were wandering around Edinburgh in 2043.

"Please, pretty, pretty, pretty please!" she had moaned, on and on until we went back so I could stay sane. In truth, I wanted them as well, a sign of my possession to Rose. She loved hers, and never took it off, even when we went to see her mother. Whether Jackie noticed them or not, I don't know. She was certainly keeping her gob shut if she had, which was unusual and not like Jackie, which made me think she hadn't cottoned on to them.

I had a moment of panic when I lost mine, while we were staying at Jackie's for Christmas. For days I had no idea where it went, and felt rather embarrassed; I was what, 900 years old, and I lost a ring? _Getting old_, Rose had joked. Then, on Christmas Day, Rose returned it to me with a rose engraved on the inside of it, for my Christmas. I was overcome with emotion, a vowed never to take it off again.

After Rose had gone, it was a source of comfort for me. I twisted it around my finger, vying for an answer I knew Rose would have given me straight away. I always seemed to get the answer quicker when I was playing with that ring – but whether it was just me, or whether the rings had a bit of a connection like I'd always suspected, I'll never know.


	2. Rose's Ring

_**Rose's version, by popular demand! Jackie's isn't set in Pete's World, but Pete, Mickey, and Harry's are. **_

_**Harry is Pete's assistant at Torchwood – I introduced him in A Gallifreyan's Dream, for those of you who haven't read it and were confused about the extra character. And also put in from AGD, is Caitlyn, Jennifer and Jack – Mickey's wife and two twin kids, and Freya is Rose's daughter, although she's not going to have a little comment in this. Sorry! There are also some things in this story that relate the AGD that might not ring true, but in AGD they do. Again, sorry, but that's the way it went. No part of this, however, is mentioned in AGD.**_

_**Hope you enjoy, and remember to review!**_

_Jackie Tyler._

They thought I hadn't noticed, as well. To be perfectly honest with you, if it wasn't for mother's intuition, I probably wouldn't have. Twisting, turning, playing, fiddling – whatever you could do with the ring, they both had done it. It was like they were trying to detract attention away from the rings, but instead it drew me to them. For a matter of hours, I was torn between mentioned them and keeping quiet, knowing that the two did not like to draw attention to themselves. I knew, even, that if they confirmed what I was thinking it would be all over London by a week on Tuesday. I had met my match in this ring, however stupid and silly that may seem. I decided to do what was best for my daughter, instead of what was best for myself. I didn't say anything.

"You have a nice time. And don't forget to phone! It was months last time. I do want to know what my daughter gets up to, no matter how strange them seems, alright? Good. Now, go on! Don't keep him waiting!" My voice was strange and high, almost bordering on slightly squeaky. I cringed, and Rose noticed the change in voice as well.

"You OK, Mum?" My only child asked me, her brow furrowed in concern. I shook my head, brushing my hand against hers, feeling the cold metal against her warm skin.

"I'm fine," I said, stroking her ring. She noticed, looking down on her left hand. "Go on. I love you," I let go of her hand reluctantly, but I knew it was her time to go now. Just as it was every time when she had to leave after a visit.

"Bye, Mum. I love you too. And, I will phone this time!" She laughed, her hazel eyes alight, before laughing harder as the Doctor came out of the TARDIS, moaning about how long we'd been chatting, yelling over to me that if I wanted to give Rose a run down of everything that had been happening in Eastenders while she was gone, I'd have to do it another time.

"Go and get away already!" I said laughing, waving as the box made that funny, distinctive sound as it left. I smiled – I hadn't broken my promise to myself, as I hadn't said anything aloud. Smiling still, if not wider, I proceeding to my empty home to phone up my friend, Bev, and have a chat about Tesco's ever-increasing prices. It was really getting ridiculous, the amount I was paying for teabags these days.

_Mickey Smith._

Rose had never been a wearer of rings. Even when we were kids and all the other girls were wearing cheap plastic rings from the front of girly magazines, Rose preferred to wear a necklace or bracelet as opposed to rings. _Got in her way,_ she always said. _A nuisance._ So I was surprised that she turned up at parallel Torchwood after Pete saving her wearing one. And on her ring finger as well. Analyzing it subtly as we drove back from Norway, I noticed it was a simple diamond on a platinum band – it was as beautiful as Caitlyn's, but much simpler. It was very Rose, in a way. Jennifer described it as _'gorgeous, just like Auntie Rose'. _I wouldn't have expected her to get anything fancy or extravagant; it wasn't her. Frills and lace, an explosion of diamonds – nothing like that ever went with the image that came with Rose. The image of Rose came with diamonds, of course, but they were in the sky, where I couldn't take her to get them. Only he could.

I knew what it was, even when others took a few moments to figure it out. It was a wedding ring. Either that or a promise ring, but Rose had quirked her head in confusion when Harry had asked for help on selecting one for his girlfriend, and I knew she wasn't acting, and that she really didn't know what a promise ring was, or meant. So, I came to the conclusion it was a wedding ring. I was pleased for Rose. She needed some strength, bringing up Freya on her own, and I felt like she drew strength from the ring. Around the people who knew Rose the best, it became known as simply "The Ring." It seemed that everything that involved the Doctor in some way or another brought with it gossip, speculation and its own title.

_Pete Tyler._

I haven't known Rose for very long, but I know her enough to tell just how much she loves that man. He wasn't even a man, he was an alien. I am man enough to admit that I cried watching my daughter on that beach in Norway. I had never been so glad that I agreed to drive thousands of miles to get to that beach, however reluctant I was to do it at first. Everyone apart from Jackie, surprisingly, thought that his voice was all in her head; but Jackie knew her daughter better, and quite rightly, too.

After Jackie lost our baby, I developed insomnia. I couldn't sleep, with guilt and a sense that it was my fault, in some twisted kind of way. Like I hadn't been there to catch Jackie when she fell down the stone steps. I cried, alone and with Rose, who reluctantly admitted she was having a baby too. I was overjoyed but immensely saddened, that Rose would get to become a mother but myself not. It was then I noticed her ring. I think, that I was one of the only people who she told of her marriage to the Doctor. _Impulse_, she said. _Went to Barcelona in 4321. It felt right. It was right … is right._ She remains married, although she's still under Miss Tyler at Torchwood. I haven't known her for very long, but she's still my daughter, and I'm proud of the woman she's become.

_Harry Watson_

"_A rose by any other name still smells as sweet," _William Shakespeare obviously hadn't met Rose Tyler. She wasn't Rose Tyler, actually. According to law, she doesn't have a second name. She married an alien. I never imagined that for her. She never seemed the type to get married. I'd always imagined her as the type of woman who'd never give her heart to someone. But she had, she had indeed.

Every day I worked with the Tyler's, I found out more and more about their previously lives. I got to know that Rose and Jackie weren't born on this Earth. I found out that Rose had gone travelling for three years with the man she was married to, and for one of those years she had been down as a missing person. I also discovered things that were completely trivial, like the fact that Rose could sing really well, and that Freya was incredibly bright, and that Jackie knew how to get as much out of the government, police and council as she possibly could. I also learnt that Rose's ring was bought in Edinburgh, through eavesdropping on Pete and Rose. I knew it was bad, but I wanted to know more about this whole mystery – a mystery it certainly was. "The Ring" was a legend amongst those closest to the Tyler's, me included. It deserved capitalisation, which it got. Mickey confided in me once that "The Ring" gave Rose strength and hope, and also comfort. I was confused as to why, for quite a few years. It just sounded to me like a scene from "_Lord of the Rings_."


End file.
